Dying days
by dr100
Summary: In her weather jacket, while trailing behind her, Amy Williams ran on.  There was no stopping her.  The thirst for adventure was too much, and trailing after her, was Rory calling, - "Amy… this has gone on for far too long!"
1. Chapter 1

The Adventures of the Eleventh Doctor

Dying days

By Nathan Mullins

* * *

><p>In her weather jacket, while trailing behind her, Amy Williams ran on. There was no stopping her. The thirst for adventure was too much, and trailing after her, was Rory calling, - "Amy… this has gone on for far too long!"<p>

_"The Earth is the third planet from the sun. That is a fact!"_

"Thanks for that," muttered Amy, still charging forward, still aware of Rory having stopped some way behind her.

She turned around to face him, as he stared back at her, silent yet terrified.

"Come on!" she yelled, - "…there's no time for this!"

"I can't move!" answered Rory.

_"Bio-degradable, humans. Soil to serve the planet."_

The voice was clear, and unnerving. Amy ran forward, tugging at her husband's hand, but he had let her go.

**"RORY!"** she screamed, again and again. **"RORY,** please!" she bellowed.

"Amy… **NO!"**

Amy turned back in the direction she had been running. She fell silent, for he had come, he had answered her message.

**"OH… MY…"**

Rory had been released, and he leapt forward, an arm reaching around Amy's shoulders.

"Tell me it's not him? How can it be him?"

Rory was hesitant, while Amy darted forward, arms wide aside as she leapt into the arms of the Doctor, tears dripping from her rosy cheeks.

"Just be thankful the eyes were his, otherwise we'd be in trouble."

"You're the Doctor's ganger," noted Amy.

The face was slimy, grey, and wet. The eyes were a pale shade of red, and he was cold to the touch.

"What about the eyes?" asked Rory.

"The Doctor is weird and wonderful and absurd. The eyes are left whenever a ganger is… well… killed, or disintegrated. I have his mind too, and was able to return somehow, you know me, him… you know him!"

"And we arrived with you?" asked Amy.

"Well the Doctor left you, and then I got your message and I had to rescue you, of course I had to rescue you, I mean if you never found out we switched places, you'd still imagine I was him, and he was me, and here we are, and judging by the calling…"

_"I want an answer!"_

"Who is calling us?"

Rory had noticed that too.

"The caller has no true identity, no name at all. He is within you, almost, and now we have to go."

"Where?" demanded Amy. "This is all too much to take in!"

"To the TARDIS, immediately!"

"And where's that?" shrieked Rory, while something jerked him sideways, forcing him onto his back, staring up at the Doctor as his shrieks fell silent.

"I've no idea!" he bellowed, but his voice had been cut off, at least from Rory's earshot, and Amy was pulling him free from the grip of nothingness, and meanwhile, the Doctor, while in ganger form was sobbing into his sleeve.


	2. Chapter 2

The Adventures of the Eleventh Doctor

Dying days

By Nathan Mullins

* * *

><p>"Release him!" demanded the Doctor. "He's unimportant."<p>

"Thanks," muttered Rory. "Means the world to me to have you tell this thing, whatever it is I'm worthless!"

"Now I didn't say that," whispered the Doctor.

"How did you escape then?"

Amy was at his side, as Rory untangled the vine wrapped around his legs.

"Will power," answered the Doctor, lending Rory a hand, but Rory refused him.

"I can manage," he declared.

But then the vines emerged once more, striking, sending him clawing after the Doctor once more.

"I said…" bellowed the Doctor, rising to save Rory's life. "Leave him alone!"

But the vines had their orders. Rory was on their to do list. Until the Doctor marched forward, armed with garden sheers and chopped and severed the vines from Rory's person.

"Thanks," huffed Rory, breathing a sigh of relief.

Hauled to his feet, finally accepting the Doctor's assistance, Rory asked, - Why is this thing so interested in me?"

"No idea," answered the Doctor. "Come on!"

The TARDIS had arrived. There ahead of them. Marching towards it, the Doctor rummaged through his pockets for the key. "Found it!" he said.

Amy and Rory rushed inside. There ahead of them was the console. It's bright orange walls, and gold rails leading on up to the central column was wondrous. Yet something had changed. Their surrounds were new. There were blues, and reds, and still that glowing orange, and the Doctor was at home, but then they realised.

"Where'd you get it from, this thing?" asked Amy, one arm around Rory, while the other touching the rough edges the console.

"Oh yes, of course!" exclaimed the Doctor, jumping about, dancing about his two companions, his very first companions. "This is all new to you! When did the ganger own a blue box? Never, until, well…" and he paused, and with one arm leant on a wall post beside him. "As a ganger…" he went on. "Able to return to life, the very essence of what was, and zap, with the Doctor's creative mind, here I am, and then I grew this old time machine, and there you are!"

"What?" asked Rory, puzzled.

The Doctor's babble made no sense. Not really, but Amy knew full well the Doctor was clever.

"And we can't leave!" groaned the Doctor, as he charged the randomiser and set coordinates. "We're stuck here!"

"Where are we anyway?" asked Amy.

"Oh, we've been here before, but long ago, and then you were perhaps too ill to remember!"

"Oh my gosh…"

Amy's bottom lip began to tremble.

"The Gods…" she whispered.

"No need to whisper, Williams, we're aboard the TARDIS, we're safe!"

"And this thing wants me, this time around, eh Doctor?" muttered Rory.

"Yes, Rory. It's all about you. It's what you wanted. Exactly what you wanted!"

"What do you mean?"

Rory looked up at the Doctor, completely dazed, a little troubled. He wasn't scared, yet he was disturbed.

"What are you doing here?"

"We just arrived," said Amy, as she appeared beside Rory. "Why? Is there a problem?"

"Yes, a massive problem, a terrible wibbly wobbly, timey wimey, spacey wacey, problem! But not to worry, for I am the Doctor. I've returned, but I'm not your Doctor, am I? Not so easy to trust me, seeing as I'm not him, but I share his memories, for instance… I know the Doctor just dropped you off back home, and this, my friends, is all a lie!"

"What are you talking about?" barked Amy.

"Are you saying we're false interpretations of our real counterparts?" trembled Rory.


	3. Chapter 3

The Adventures of the Eleventh Doctor

Dying days

By Nathan Mullins

* * *

><p>The TARDIS engines flipped. Suddenly, the forces that be had <em>'let go'<em>, or so according to the Doctor. Excitedly, he hurried about the console, adjusting the instruments, while the Williams stood waiting, resting, and gathering their breath back.

"What are you doing?" asked Rory, pulling his hand free from a panel of controls. "You said you'd set the coordinates?"

"Yeah, right…" he answered, in a long, heavily drawn out breath. "Thing is Rory, why have we been released? Perhaps this thing's good at reading minds? Maybe that's what we're up against? A mind reader?"

"What makes you say that?" asked Amy.

The Doctor marched across the console room to meet with her.

"I let you down, Pond. I made you wait. Long ago. So long ago now, and here we are, travelling together, and it's not just you and me, but Rory, your husband, so what I mean to say is, when you carry the burden of making someone you love wait so long, to again find yourself travelling alongside them, and their other half, you want them to know you care so much for them you never hope to lose them. Do I make myself clear?"

Rory turned to Amy and smiled.

"So we're good, all of us?"

The Doctor turned to him, and shook his head.

"No, _we're _not," he answered. "In fact, this has got to stop! Own up, or else…"

Frowning, Amy didn't know what on earth the Doctor was talking about.

"What do you 'own up?" she scowled.

"I mean it!" declared the Doctor.

"We don't know what you're on about!" begged Rory.

"And after such a speech, such a speech I hoped would indicate I care, I still have a heart, despite being a ganger and still you refuse. Well, in that case, I'm sorry, but existing for the sake of taking the place of two very wonderful people is unacceptable."

Fetching his screwdriver from his pocket, he saw the fear in the eyes of his two friend's gangers, and he switched on, until the gangers had dissolved. He had soon turned from the heated remains of his friends, the eyes, their very human eyes, and found he had finally arrived.

Hopping over the remains of the two fakes, he peered out through the key hole of his ship, and realised he had indeed made it. He unlocked the latch, and stepped out from the blue box, observing his surrounds.

"Come on," he muttered. He knew 'Pond' would have heard it, but as for 'Williams'…

Then suddenly, a shriek of delight made him jump as Amy crept up from behind him.

**"AMY WILLIAMS!"** he screeched, - "…**AND RORY**, hello!"

And Rory appeared, to make the Doctor feel even more guilty, with the remains of their counterparts just aboard his ship.

"How are you?" asked Amy, looking the Doctor up and down, repeatedly. "You look different, somehow?"

The Doctor's flesh aspect had dissolved. He looked like his ordinary self, if only he were not a ganger, and he smiled, as Amy leant him a mirror for him to see for himself.

"Well, actually…" he admitted, prepared to come clean. "It's not me…"

Rory frowned, and Amy turned to Rory expecting him to come up with some fabulous explanation, when the Doctor cut in.

"Well, I'm the Doctor, but not your Doctor. In that case, I'm not even the Doctor, just a Doctor, but actually… put it another way," he said, arms waving all about himself as he tried to come up with some form of extravagance. "I'm the Doctor but in the form of his ganger. He knew I'd find a way out, and you can trust me!"

_"Can we?"_ asked Rory.

"Come on, Rory," insisted the Doctor. "Of course you can trust me…_** I'm the Doctor!"**_


	4. Chapter 4

The Adventures of the Eleventh Doctor

Dying days

By Nathan Mullins

* * *

><p>There are days we die inside. The days the Doctor called his dying days. When he would return to rescue his friends. The days had come by so soon into his last few hours. <em>Closing time<em> was upon him. His time was coming to an end.

And what's more was he knew the end was coming. He had reasoned with the memories of his very real self, and seen the fear in his friend's eyes. They knew too, and were keeping something from him still. Almost as soon as he had arrived, he sensed they had held back, that there was some guilt in him returning, and not being their Doctor.

While in their company, the ganger as what he was, sighed. He knew full well of the plots and the schemes. He knew his friends too well. Far too well to believe there wasn't a reason for their misery. He sat on a chair, and discussed very little with them, and then he snapped, unable to hold back any longer.

"Yes, now, I know what's been said!" he declared, pushing back his seat, and jumping onto it. "Let's not ruin our friendship, what we have and always will have," he pleaded.

Amy and Rory stared up at him from their sofa, and half smiling, as well as the odd frown, Amy stood up and belted, - "Get down from that chair!"

The Doctor jumped down, and Amy took him in her arms.

"So…" he said, in rather an over the top manor. "No more secrets. Explanations are great, I like those the most, and no lies, as they're terrifying."

Rory stood up to side with Amy and give the Doctor a good shake by the hand. The Doctor took it, and chuckled, hysterically.

"Gangers…" he said, in a long drawn out breath. "We're not so different, you know?"

Amy and Rory nodded.

"In fact, I've just seen to it yours are forever taken care of. Impersonators are sly and unpredictable!"

"What about you?" asked Rory. "You're the Doctor, and there's only one of…"

"-… ME?" the Doctor cut in. "No! You're wrong, my friend. There's many of me, one of which is living with one Rose Tyler, and he is like me, only not quite so. And then there's all of us, who have regenerated, but continue. This is entirely irrelevant!"

"So, what are you doing here?" asked Amy, quickly changing the subject.

"I know," he said.

"What do you know?" Rory asked.

"That I'm to die. And that a wedding will take place, and that I must attend, to say thank you…"

"What for?" demanded Amy, all tense and stressed by his reasons.

"For giving me life," the Doctor answered. "I've died once too often, but when the astronaut struck me while regenerating, that was me gone. But then when we encountered River, who was then Mel before she became River, she gave me life. I was dead but for mere moments, and then it all started, the process I mean, and then I regenerated!"

"You mean to say you don't die when we think you do?"

"I've no idea," he answered. "I'm only a ganger, who has visions of a future, be it very bleak, but there's hope…"

"And how can we help?" gasped Rory, speaking for Amy, who too was in utter shock.

"By attending _the wedding of River Song!"_ he concluded.

Hours passed, and fed apple crumble and custard, not forgetting a side dish of fish fingers, the Doctor was on his way out.

"It's been amazing having you around!" said Amy, trying to round off the evening with a memorable goodbye. Rory was standing at the door, waving.

"Yes," he replied, sheepishly. "I had to find you. After I dealt with your gangers, it suddenly occurred to me to come and find you. When we first met, we struck up a friendship quite soon into our awkward lives, but I always knew not all was quite right. I wanted to see to it that there were no hard feelings, that there was a way out… for him."

With Rory's permission, the Doctor took Amy in his arms.

"Goodbye Pond, or have you seen me for who I am?"

He parted from Amy, and saw she was upset.

"Evidently," he said. "Goodbye Williams!"

Amy withdrew to the door beside Rory. She turned back to find the Doctor had gone.

But the end will soon be upon us.

**To be continued, in - A wedding in the future.**

**Coming Soon!**


End file.
